Revolution
by blacksand1
Summary: Tie-in to Howling At The Moon. To regain what he lost now, Liquid must fight through a world of what he lost before. That is, if he really wants to remember. Rated T for violence, some language, and some slight-ish Sniper Wolf/Liquid Snake DONE
1. Chapter 1: The Doors

_Alright, here's that Howling tie in I talked about in chapter 13~! The title is a little weird, but I don't want to explain it. And it might change, but right now I don't know. 8DD Are you ready for this? Whatever this may be? For anyone who just strolled in without reading __Howling At The Moon__, you will be completely confused. Go read that up to chapter 12. I own nothing, except Liquid's bound-to-be-Jossed-past and any of my characters that make cameos in this. LET'S GO. _

_**-The Doors-**_

Liquid Snake slowly opened his eyes, groaning a little in pain; God, he felt like ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag… As he tried to orient himself within this space and recover, the blonde Englishman thought back to the last thing he remembered. That just happened to be the mental battle to the death with his father. Liquid narrowed his eyes a bit as he tried to think of that fight in detail. Had he won? He distinctly remembered his fist connecting with Big Boss's face, but Big Boss's had done likewise. He then opened his eyes completely to get the first clear look at his surroundings. All he saw was grey.

Liquid stood up and mustered up the strength to look around; he cursed under his breath, there was nothing but grey for miles around. This wasn't his mind or the room he remembered his body being in, so it seemed that he had lost.

"So, _this _is where you go after you die? … Pretty unimpressive," Liquid remarked out loud to himself. He then had to suppress a shudder; it was empty all around, but there had been no echo.

"Not exactly. Close, but not exactly." Liquid's head whipped around to behold the source of the familiar female voice. Sitting behind him, cross-legged and grinning, was a woman with dark eyes, blonde hair braided tight, tannish-olive skin, and a very odd outfit Liquid wasn't in the mood to analyze. Her real name was Stephania Auroraios, but Liquid had known her as Manic Rat.

"A-ha, I _did _kill you after all. So, are you itching for a rematch?" Liquid wondered with a haughty grin. Rat's grin flattened into a line and she rolled her eyes.

"Just stop. I've spent most of my life fighting. I'd like to use my afterlife for relaxing, if that's not too much _trouble_ for you," Rat snapped. Liquid's grin fell, and he was silent.

"To elaborate on what I was saying before, this isn't exactly what happens when you die," Rat began. "You're not exactly dead, either. You were just pushed into the state in between life and death when Big Boss took control of your mind."

Liquid raised an eyebrow and remarked, "I'd ask for the details, but I suppose the details would just confuse me even further." Rat chuckled a bit, smiling once more.

"Wait– how did you know all that? You weren't there," Liquid asked.

"Actually, I was. Directly after I died I became a ghost. I hung around the base when I found out about all this crazy shit going down, and I was watching when you and your dad's spirit threw down. Pretty cool fight, I got to say," Rat replied.

"How 'cool' can a fight where I lost be?" Liquid wondered, his eyes narrowing at Rat. Rat's grin widened more and she held down another chuckle. Liquid narrowed his eyes further; there were many things he despised, and being laughed at was one of them.

"It's not always about winning and losing, Liquid," Rat remarked. Liquid rolled his eyes at that statement. Right then, with very little warning, another person appeared almost between Rat and Liquid; Rat jumped a bit, surprised, while Liquid's eyes just widened a bit. This person was a pale man just a few inches taller than Liquid; this man had receding, slicked-back silver hair and dark eyes behind rectangular glasses. One of the lenses was cracked, and a bloody tear streamed down from the eye behind the broken lens. He wore a black, poncho-esque raincoat over army fatigues.

The man looked from Liquid to Rat and back again a few times before asking, "Which one of you calls yourself Liquid Snake?"

"That'd be me," Liquid replied, pointing at himself with his thumb.

The pale man nodded in acknowledgment before turning to Rat and questioning further, "Then who are you?"

Rat smiled sheepishly and answered, "I'm Manic Rat. I just kind of showed up to greet Liquid in Limbo… Yeah, I'll be going now. See ya Liquid!" Rat then promptly faded out of this 'world', leaving nothing but more grey in her place. Liquid blinked a few times; things were just getting more perplexing.

"So, I've told you my 'name'. What's yours?" Liquid asked, turning towards the pale man with a semi-suspicious look.

"I am The Sorrow. Former member of the Cobra Unit and spirit medium," he replied, his raincoat fading away then.

"You're a Cobra?" Liquid echoed. "I remember my father- Big Boss, I mean- told me about your unit…"

"Yes, your father… We encountered each other when he came to Groznyj Grad to kill The Boss," The Sorrow explained, "He fell several hundred meters and landed unconscious in the river. He briefly crossed into the spirit world. Before allowing him to leave, I tested him by forcing him to confront the spirits of everyone whose lives he had ended."

"That's a little sadistic," Liquid commented. "… I like it."

"… Yes, well, he left the trial a more enlightened warrior. I have a feeling that his experience in the spirit world gave him the knowledge he needed to cross over once more and displace you," The Sorrow surmised.

"That's easy enough to fix," Liquid remarked. "Just show _me _how to do it and I'll set things back in the natural order."

"It's not that simple," The Sorrow shot back, narrowing his eyes a fraction. "First _you _must be tested."

The Sorrow then began to hover a few feet in the air before he continued, "It's time for you to know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended."

"Quick question?" Liquid asked. "How much impact will this have if I can't remember any of these people?" The Sorrow stared at him with an incredulous look for a second before he ceased floating and stared head on at him.

"_What?_" The Sorrow asked, looking both confused and somewhat skeptical.

"I can hardly remember a thing before two years ago. That includes everyone I've killed," Liquid replied. The Sorrow continued to stare at Liquid, now with surprise in the mix.

"I see… It won't have any impact at all if you don't recognize them," The Sorrow commented, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "Let's see, how to rework this… Ah, yes, that could work." Liquid then felt the presence of something beside him… He turned to his right and nearly jumped when he saw a pair of giant wooden doors standing where they hadn't been before.

"What the-?"

"Through those doors is a world made out of everything you've forgotten," The Sorrow began. "You will travel through places in your past and fight against everyone you've ever killed. For everyone you defeat you will regain the memory of ending their life, along with other lost memories. If you make it through here to the end, you will regain everything you once were. But if you can't, you lose every one of your memories, and you'll never get them back. Understood?"

Liquid stared at the Sorrow for a second or two in shock before remarking, "That's even more sadistic than what you did to my father."

"Sadistic, yes, but necessary," The Sorrow replied with a shrug. He then waved his hand towards the door, ushering Liquid to go through them. Liquid turned back to the doors and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He wanted his body back, yes, but did he really want the memories of a life he _knew _was awful back? Liquid refrained from shaking his head; he had to get them back. He felt incomplete without them, it was imperative that he got them back. Liquid took another deep breath and pushed open the doors, walking through them into God knew what…

The first thing Liquid saw was a stone wall that didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. Liquid raised an eyebrow and wondered if he had hit some sort of dead end. He looked over his shoulder to see that the doors were gone, so he followed along the wall until it turned into a corner. Liquid kept following the path through a few more twists and turns before he realized that this must be some sort of labyrinth. Liquid narrowed his eyes; this was just perfect, the one thing he didn't need right now was being lost. He then put his guard up; seeing as this was a labyrinth, an enemy could come from anywhere.

Liquid traversed the maze for a minute or two more, running into a few dead ends as he did, before he came across his first enemy. Liquid had been about to turn a corner when he heard footsteps right around it; he immediately flattened himself against the wall, trying to make as little noise as possible as he listened for the footsteps to grow quieter. When they did, Liquid attempted to look around the corner. Several meters away a generic-looking soldier was looking around; he was armed only with a knife while his head was twisted at an awkward angle.

_Well, now I know how I killed him at least_, Liquid thought. Right then the soldier turned his way; Liquid cursed under his breath and tried to hide again, but the soldier had noticed him already.

"You! You bastard, I just got there! I was a rookie!" the soldier exclaimed as he ran down the corridor towards Liquid, sounding out for blood. Liquid leapt from his hiding place as the 'rookie' soldier came up on him, dodging an attempted slash and elbowing the rookie hard in the collarbone. The force of the blow was enough to shock the soldier into letting go of his knife; in one fluid motion, Liquid snatched the falling knife out of the air and stabbed it up to the hilt into the left side of the soldier's chest. He dragged the knife all the way through the soldier's upper torso to the other side, only taking it out after he had left a deep gash through the rookie's chest.

The soldier with the twisted neck hit the floor, waterfalls of blood seeping out of the gash Liquid carved. Liquid was certain he was dead… Liquid then felt a splitting pain rocket through his head, originating in his right eye. Liquid let out a grunt of pain and held his head out of instinct as two memories forced their way into his mind.

_Liquid snuck through the duct silent as the grave; he was lucky he was skinny for a fifteen-year-old boy, otherwise he probably wouldn't have fit in here. He came upon the room he was looking for and cursed under his breath when he saw a soldier milling about in there. Nonetheless, Liquid slid the grate away and dropped down silently from the duct. He smirked as the soldier kept his back turned to him; he was a rookie, that much was certain. He immediately closed the distance between them, grabbed the soldier's head and broke his neck without a second thought. The rookie soldier fell to the ground, his head twisted at a disturbing angle with eyes wide in shock. Liquid dragged the body behind a pile of boxes and made his way out of the room…_

The pain began to ease as Liquid came across the second memory.

_Liquid bit his tongue to prevent himself from letting out a yelp as two bullets shot through the stone wall right above his head; at eight-years-old he had trained quite a bit in the labyrinth, avoiding getting shot by his father. He rolled to avoid two more aimed slightly lower than the last two. _

_"Come on James, is that the best you can do? You've got a whole labyrinth to avoid me in! I swear, if this were David I just know he'd have given me the slip nearly an hour ago," Big Boss called from wherever he was in the maze. Liquid was running on pure adrenaline by this point, just trying not to die. Why did he do this to him? He was only a kid, how was he supposed to trick the greatest soldier of the 20th century? He briefly wondered if his mother- whoever she was- would've condoned this. Another bullet from The Patriot just missed his head. _

The pain subsided as Liquid thought of that last memory. Well, that told him where he was at least. This must've been a training area in the facility his father said he was raised in. Liquid then snarled at the thought of his father; why anyone would train a child like that was beyond him, and his hatred for the man increased tenfold. But he didn't have any time to ponder that further, for even more soldiers with broken necks and other wounds came running around another corner, shouting that they'd avenge themselves. Liquid gritted his teeth and prepared for more pain has he jumped into the fray armed only with a knife.

The pain of memories forcing their way back to where they belonged lessened with every soldier Liquid cut down, possibly from his mind getting used to it or because he was expecting it. It wasn't hard to navigate through the labyrinth after that; with every soldier, he gained bits and pieces of every time he had been in the labyrinth, along with when he had killed these men. Sometimes he got rather useless memories back, but those he ignored. Liquid could feel it as the memories filled him and he navigated through the maze; he was beginning to feel whole again, and his hatred for his brother and father only increased with every memory he regained.

After nearly an hour of cutting- and eventually shooting, since he stole a gun from the twelfth person he'd killed again- down dozens upon dozens of enemies, Liquid found the very end of the maze. He narrowed his eyes as he beheld it from the path. It looked to be a large, empty clearing; there were several steel pillars riddled with bullet holes made by his father and others, but other than that Liquid seemed to be completely alone.

_That can't be right. I was nearly overwhelmed with soldiers back there… _Liquid thought. He proceeded cautiously into the empty space, eyes narrowed in scrutiny.

Suddenly a loud Irish accent shouted from the shadows, "Oi, you're late! Decided ya'd keep me fecking waiting, eh? What, am I not fecking good enough for ya to be on time to our fight? Ya never change, James! You'll always be that bloody dirtball who always thought he was fecking better than me!" Liquid whipped his head around in several different directions, unsure of where the accented voice was coming from. It sounded familiar, but that was to be expected.

"I'm over here ya eeijit!" The source of the accented voice stepped out from the far right-hand corner of the room. A tall boy, about seventeen years old, had been the one shouting Irish expletives at Liquid; he had dark hair mostly slicked back that seemed to spike up all over the place, dark eyes, pale skin, and wore nearly all black. All over his face were scars and small burns. It was obvious this kid had seen battle, and quite a lot of it. The coat he wore was open to reveal a large bloodstain and blade-shaped hole over his heart in the white shirt beneath it.

"Jaysus, you've gotten old," the boy remarked, grinning in 'superiority'. Liquid gritted his teeth and let out a low growl; he wasn't old! Who was this damn kid?

"Shut your trap, you bloody wanker!" Liquid snapped. "Who the hell do you think you are anyway?"

The Irish boy snorted, pointed at himself with his thumb and answered, "The name's Tristan O'Shannon! Used to be part of the IRA until ya put me in a hole in the ground! And I'm here for a rematch!"

Liquid grinned wide and shot back, "Fine, I just hope you know you're going to lose." Tristan ground his teeth, his anger doubling.

"Shut your face ya feckin' dirtball!" Tristan shouted, running towards Liquid with his fist raised. Liquid immediately shot at Tristan, but the Irish boy dodged it with hardly any effort. Liquid's eyes didn't get a chance to widen before Tristan closed the distance between them and punched him straight in the face. Before Liquid could regain his bearings, Tristan ripped the gun and knife from Liquid's hands and threw them across the room.

"I won't have ya cheating in this fight," Tristan growled as Liquid regained his bearings and they circled each other like a pair of sharks, "It's gonna be hand to hand, fair and square. Ya get me dirtball?" Liquid just let out a grunt. Tristan let out a short cackle before running towards Liquid and preparing a roundhouse kick when he was in range. Liquid acted quickly and grabbed Tristan's raised leg, slamming the boy into the ground. Liquid was about to stomp on Tristan's throat, but Tristan back flipped to his feet just in time. Liquid threw a left and right hook at Tristan, the boy dodging both, before hitting him with an uppercut. Tristan snapped back surprisingly fast from the blow and used that opportunity to kick Liquid in the stomach.

Liquid gasped as some of the wind was knocked out of him, but recovered even quicker than Tristan and dodged two punches from the boy; Liquid had to admit, the kid was durable for a normal human, and pretty damn strong too. Liquid elbowed Tristan hard in the middle of his chest, stunning the boy long enough for Liquid to land a roundhouse kick on his face. Tristan then grabbed Liquid's foot, much to the Englishman's surprise, and gripped it _tight_. Liquid let out a grunt of pain- it felt like the kid was breaking his ankle!

"Time to return the feckin' favor!" Tristan shouted with a maniacal grin. With a mighty roar, Tristan slammed Liquid into the ground; Liquid could swear he heard the concrete cracking from the force of that blow. Liquid couldn't breath for several seconds, but he managed to find the strength to roll out of the way of Tristan's next blow and behind a pillar. He took a second to get his oxygen back, but after he did he dove into the shadows as Tristan punched the pillar he had been using as support, bringing the whole thing down along with a section of the ceiling. Liquid cursed under his breath; that was no normal kid!

"Come out ya feckin' pansy!" Tristan called with a maniacal laugh.

_Like hell_, Liquid thought as he gritted his teeth. Fighting Tristan fairly wouldn't get him anywhere; he'd have to be stealthy here. Liquid paused behind another pillar and quickly scanned the area for any sign of his gun and knife while Tristan looked around for him. He narrowed his eyes when he saw them lying in the middle of the room. He couldn't risk exposing himself to get them, which made things a hell of a lot more difficult.

"I never knew you were this much of a coward James!" Tristan remarked. Liquid clenched his hands into fists as he ran from the pillar just seconds before Tristan punched it down. He'd have to get behind him if this was going to work; Liquid tripled his pace, not stopping behind the next pillar he came across since he didn't want to lose all the progress he made. He was about on Tristan's left side by this point, but it was obvious Tristan would turn towards him soon. He needed to go faster. Liquid ran three more times faster, eternally grateful that his ankle wasn't broken from Tristan's grip on it. And soon enough he was behind Tristan.

Liquid ran from the shadows and closed the distance between himself and Tristan's back, grabbing the Irish boy in a headlock before Tristan could even react.

"What the- ya sneaky bastard!" Tristan yelled struggling against Liquid's hold. Liquid smirked a bit; skill always won over brute strength. But he didn't have much time, with his strength Tristan would probably be out of his hold in another minute. Liquid acted quickly- not wasting a second- and twisted Tristan's head all the way around, breaking his neck and killing him instantly.

As Liquid let Tristan fall to the ground, more memories than he had ever gained from the random soldiers in the labyrinth bored their way into Liquid's mind, nearly bringing back the pain from the sheer amount of them. Nearly everything from Liquid's teenage years flooded back into his mind, along with everything directly concerning Tristan.

_Liquid had met Tristan when he was nearly twelve. He was also an experiment that the people who created him had made, a test to see if a soldier like Big Boss or his clones could be created through mere genetic engineering. Tristan had been taken from Ireland and experimented on extensively, and though he gained strength and endurance the boy was deemed a failure because of his hotheaded nature. That hotheaded nature was what lead to the eventual rivalry between him and Liquid. Every day, it had been like this…_

_"Shut your trap ya feckin' dirtball! I oughta punch that smirk right off yer face! You're not better than me, don't think that ya are!" a fourteen-year-old Tristan shouted, glaring at a same-aged Liquid. _

_"But I am better than you. They deemed you a failure, so that automatically makes anyone here better than you," Liquid said condescendingly, smirking at Tristan. _

_"Ya feckin' freak of science! Let's go, right now! Hand to hand!" Tristan roared. _

_"Have at you!" Liquid shouted back. _

_Immediately they came to blows. They always would. Perhaps somewhere down deep Liquid actually appreciated Tristan. He was the only person Liquid could actually think he was better than without lying to himself about it. However, Tristan escaped when he was sixteen, fled back to Ireland and joined the IRA like he had always dreamed of doing. Liquid was sent to kill him a year after that, since defective property of those who had created him was not to be let loose on the world. It had been a gunfight in the slums of Dublin, but Liquid had run out of ammo at a crucial moment. He got lucky and threw a knife right into Tristan's heart._

Liquid stood there for a moment, contemplating everything he had just learned. Tristan's existence truly was something he had needed in the end, even if the boy had been a nuisance and a rival. Being considered inferior to everyone… it would've driven Liquid mad. There was a dull ache in Liquid's head from all the memories forcing their way in, so he waited for a minute or two until it subsided. When it did, Liquid looked to the back wall of the room to see that there was a door where one hadn't been before there.

_That door must lead me to the rest of my memories… Well, time's wasting, _Liquid thought. He collected his gun and knife from the floor, walked over to the other door, and made his way through.

_Well, I hope it was at least sort of alright. Yeah._


	2. Chapter 2: Die Schœne Blitz

_LAST TIME… Why am I doing a 'last time' on this? Alright, so, we're here on a new chapter. I hope you liked last chapter and that you continue to like this story through to this one as well. So, I own nothing, let's go. WARNING, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF GERMAN. Let's just say I'm practicing for my final tomorrow, shall we?_

_**-Die Schöne Blitz-**_

Liquid shut the door behind him as he stepped out from the empty room at the end of the labyrinth. He squinted a bit as the light changed from fluorescent and eye irritating to muted and grey before suppressing a shiver. Wherever he was, he was outside, and it was cold. Not as cold as it had been in Shadow Moses, no, but pretty cold… a kind of cold he was used to. Liquid then took a detailed look at his surroundings. He was in what could best be described as a slum; all the buildings were run-down, nearly everything was dirty, the sky was grey (but that was normal for England), and Liquid could tell the people were probably as amoral as the setting… and then, a memory felt the need to tell him where he was.

_Liquid sat against the eastern outside wall of the facility; everything was dark in the slum, but the sun was hardly ever up when he snuck out, so this was normal to him. He stubbed out the cigarette he had been smoking against the wall and sighed. Liquid had lived inside that building for fourteen years now, it was hard to believe that a place so sterile and clean could exist in a disgusting and dirty place like this. Well, now that he thought about it, it was the perfect cover. He frowned at the stubbed-out cigarette in distaste. Unlike his father (who revered cigars like they were Pagan gods) or his brother, Liquid just hated everything about smoking and cigarettes. He was only smoking them now to get some tiny feeling of independence. That was the only reason he had snuck out of the base tonight and all nights before. Being controlled your whole life- along with just being a teenager- gave you an uncontrollable urge to rebel, to do anything that at least felt like your own decision. It was a ruinous quality, but at the moment Liquid didn't much care._

Liquid shuddered a bit as the memory subsided; he could feel the smoke from that long ago still in his lungs. It was a disgusting and unclean feeling, and he knew now why he didn't currently smoke cigarettes. He looked around the slum a second time, and noticed that there were absolutely no people. He grimaced; it made sense, since the only people that actually needed to be here were those he had killed and himself (of course), but it was still creepy.

"I'd better get through this one quickly, anywhere else is better than this," Liquid muttered to himself. He raised his guard and crept through an alleyway, keeping on the lookout for enemies. When he neared the end of the alleyway that let out onto the street, Liquid spotted one right in the mouth of it. He had a bullet hole in his chest that was still bleeding, and a balaclava obscured the majority of his face. Liquid narrowed his eyes; the guard was using a much more powerful gun than his, and in this position Liquid wouldn't be able to sneak up to break his neck.

Right then Liquid saw a gutter connected to a roof nearby the soldier; he smirked, it was time to try that technique Ocelot had taught him. Liquid closed one eye, angled himself just right, and aimed for a dent in the gutter. He waited about a minute for the soldier to get in position, and fired. The bullet bounced off the side of the dent, it's angle changing just so that it plunged through the back of the soldier's balaclava-covered head. The soldier hit the floor and Liquid braced himself for the memories…

_Liquid pulled the trigger again and downed another soldier; this wasn't good, he was surrounded…_

A rather short killing memory, in Liquid's opinion.

_Liquid let out a yelp as he fell backwards from the force of the blow, hitting the floor nearly hard enough to break his bones. The seven-year-old let out a few labored breaths, wiping the blood away from his mouth as he struggled to get to his feet again._

_"Pathetic, James. But, why should I expect anything more from you? I mean, you're not David. You were made inferior and you'll always be inferior," Big Boss scoffed. Liquid let out a low growl and stood up to glare up at his father._

_"I am NOT inferior! Come on old man, let's go! I swear I'll beat you!" Liquid shouted. Somewhere in his mind, Liquid knew he couldn't beat his father, but damn if he wasn't going to try._

_"Ha! Just try it! Overcoming your genetic destiny isn't as easy as it sounds!" Big Boss laughed, reloading his pistol. Liquid got ready to dodge…_

Liquid narrowed his eyes. That time he had been even younger than when he was in the labyrinth dodging the Patriot's rounds.

_Liquid smiled the first happy smile he had smiled in years; he was all alone in the hangar, since it was the middle of the night. Liquid was sitting in the cockpit of one of the air force's helicopters. Ever since he had joined he was the best pilot. And why wouldn't he be? He loved flying, it was exhilarating. That, and being up in the sky, far away from anything in his past and all the earthly ties he had… it was the freedom he had longed for since he had learned what the word meant._

Liquid smiled at that last memory; at least this last batch of memories had ended on a happy note. He pushed those thoughts aside as he noticed something on the corpse of the soldier. Liquid walked over to the corpse and turned it over; he smirked when he saw that the soldier had been carrying C4 with him. Liquid gathered the substantial amount of C4 the soldier had been carrying, stowed it in his trench coat for later, and continued through the slum. Immediately when he left the alleyway and hit the street several more soldiers came running his way, shouting once again claims of vengeance. Liquid smirked; he had been hoping for more of a fight after the relatively simple defeat of that first soldier.

Liquid cut and shot down the soldiers with relative ease, even crushing one with a dumpster and using a few as meat-shields at times. The memories mostly fell within the parameters of when he was a child, when he killed these men, and some of his time with the Air Force. It was a combination of soul-crushingly depressing moments and somewhat happy ones, so he couldn't really complain. Liquid grinned as he slit a soldier's throat and shot one sneaking up behind him; this was surprisingly _fun_. Something told him that The Sorrow would _not _be happy about that revelation of his.

"That guy's a goddamn freak of nature! I'm out of here, I don't want to die again!" one of the soldiers shouted before another grabbed him.

"Just hold out a little longer! They've almost got it!" the other soldier said reassuringly. Liquid raised an eyebrow; just what had 'they' gotten? Whatever it was definitely wasn't good, he knew that much… But a more pressing matter was that the cowardly soldier had called him a freak of nature. Well now, Liquid Snake wasn't about to take THAT lying down now was he? Liquid whirled around, sending the coward a ferocious glare that not all of his heart was in (he mostly just wanted to scare the poor bastard). His foe's eyes widened in terror and he shoved off his compatriot's hand, making a mad dash out of here. Liquid grinned, angled himself just right, and fired; his bullet ricocheted off the gun of the not-as-cowardly soldier and hit the coward right in the chest, killing him instantly. Liquid absorbed the memories quickly and shot the other soldier before his finger could even ghost over the trigger.

Liquid absorbed the memories quicker than last time; his instincts were telling him that something was coming his way, and it wasn't something he could face hand to hand… Right then a gigantic _armored_ garbage truck burst through the front of a building across the street. Liquid could see a soldier driving the truck with nearly all of the others hanging off of it or riding inside it. It was an interesting tactic, he would give them that. Liquid backed up a bit, then turned on his heel and started sprinting away from the behemoth.

Liquid ran through back alleys and jumped over walls to evade his pursuers, whispering all the while "What am I going to do what am I going to do what am I going to do?" The truck just plowed straight through any of the obstacles Liquid had placed between them; it _was _armored after all. Liquid couldn't fight that thing with his bare hands, let alone with his gun and knife! Sure, he had taken on a fleet of fighter jets and had sort of won, but that had (in a roundabout way) gotten him in this situation in the first place so he wasn't going to try anything like that again.

"Think, Liquid! You know this place, there has to be some kind of trap you can lure them into," Liquid hissed to himself as he ran through one alley way and did a sharp turn into the adjacent one, trying in vain to throw the soldiers off. He sorted through all he had remembered about this slum while skidding into a building and running through the empty room to get to another door to the outside. Liquid barely made it out of that building before the truck plowed straight through it, knocking the two-story building off it's foundation; the remaining two stories fell into the adjacent building and crushed it beneath their weight.

Right then, Liquid devised a plan. But first, he needed to lose them for about fifteen minutes… Liquid ran from the truck for several more minutes, leading it through several more buildings and destroying more property, before leading it into a very open street. He then skidded to a halt and turned to face it head on. He could hear the soldiers cackling and calling him suicidal for this act; he tried not to smirk. Once the truck was close enough that he knew he'd be obscured from the view of the driver, Liquid ran head on into it, sticking some of the C4 he had gotten from that soldier onto the front bumper before rolling into a blind spot in the collective vision of the soldiers. Once he was sure they wouldn't know he was gone for a little bit, Liquid sprinted faster than he had ever sprinted down the street and into a rather spacious alleyway.

The alleyway was a dead end with a wall just a bit taller than the garbage truck blocking off access to the rest of the slum from that point. Liquid wasted no time and set up another bit of C4 right at the height of the truck's bumper before jumping up on a dumpster to get a head-start in scaling the brick wall. He was nearly to the top when he heard the screeching of the garbage truck's brakes as it made the turn into the alleyway. Liquid climbed faster as he head the engine and the shouts of the soldiers grow even closer, and when he reached the top of the wall Liquid stood tall atop it with his arms crossed defiantly over his chest, his trench coat flapping in the wind in a fashion Liquid _knew _looked badass.

The truck grew nearer and nearer, and Liquid tried not to grin with the anticipation. He pulled out the detonator for the C4 and let his thumb hover above the large red button at the top. He bit his lip as the truck grew ever nearer, and right when it was about a foot away from the wall Liquid pressed down hard on the detonator. Both C4's exploded, the wall crumbling along with nearby buildings while the truck's explosion was even grander than that, the gasoline igniting and setting fire to anything it touched while none of the soldiers were able to escape the devastation and destruction. The explosion incinerated some, some hit the ground or other surfaces with force so great it killed them, and the destroyed environment crushed others. Every last one died again, and Liquid's memories flowed in by the boatload.

Liquid was about to grip his head from the dull throbbing of the memory overload, but the explosion sent him flying; Liquid landed on the opposite side of the street from the wall and he landed hard. The wind was knocked out of him, and Liquid lay there on the hard concrete for several minutes, trying to recover his breath. After those minutes, he sat up, shook his head a bit to dispel the ache from hitting the ground and the memory overload, and stared at the destruction he had caused. He had done a service to mankind, wiping those disgusting buildings off the map. Liquid sat there a little longer before standing up and turning around to behold the only nice thing in this slum.

It was just a fairly simple park, just an average-sized plot of grass with several large trees on the sides of it; all the plants seemed healthy, and there were even a few birds in the trees. Liquid then raised an eyebrow. Why would there be birds here if there were no people? … Maybe because the birds wouldn't mind their home being used as an arena of sorts? Liquid shrugged and began to walk through the park, trying to look for his final opponent since there was no door to proceed through. He looked around for about a minute and nearly gave up on the park, until a peculiar sound a few meters up gave his soon-to-be-opponent away.

It was an odd creaking sound, kind of like the sound rope made when it was under strain. Immediately a memory came to Liquid as he slowly made his way up to the creaking…

_Liquid sat on the homemade swing attached to a low tree branch, not even attempting to use it for what it was meant for. This swing had only existed for eight of Liquid's twelve years of life, but it was so very important to him… Liquid sighed, this swing- made of two surprisingly strong ropes and a small plank of wood- was fine, but it lost it's impact without the one who had made it with him, the one who had suggested they make it in the first place. She had been gone for about a year now, and Liquid was certain she wasn't coming back. She had been the only one who cared…_

Liquid snapped out of that memory when he came across the swing and the individual sitting in it. A young girl- sixteen, perhaps- was sitting on the swing, moving it only slightly back and forth. She had long, silky black hair that she probably took quite a bit of pride in, eyes nearly that color, and skin a mix of tan and brown. From what Liquid could gather from her facial structure (along with her skin color), one of the girl's parents was probably from India. Unlike Tristan, she did not wear all black; she mixed grey and brown in there as well. He also noticed that she had her ears pierced, since she was wearing a pair of silver stud earrings. She was smiling at the ground thoughtfully, some of her hair getting in her eyes.

"I'm still astonished, James. I didn't think this old thing would support my weight when I came back here the first time, and it still does," the girl mused in a British accent (which seemed to be covering another, more Teutonic one), looking up at him with her dark eyes glimmering in… Adoration? Wistfulness? Strangely expressed-sorrow? All three? Liquid wasn't quite sure, possibly because he didn't remember this girl at all.

She stood up from the swing and put a hand to her chin as her smile turned into a semi-mischievous smirk, remarking, "You know, James, I always thought you'd look about like this when you got older. How old are you now, anyway? Late twenties? You're nothing like the scrawny kid I met when we were little, and definitely not as awkward as you were when we met for the very last time." Liquid just stared at her, blinking owlishly at her twice. Her smile fell for a second as he did, and the glimmer in her eyes became a little sadder. A spot directly in the middle of her chest began to bleed, staining her dark grey turtleneck with dark red.

She then smiled a melancholy smile and said, "Ah, that's right. You don't remember… I might as well introduce myself again. My name is Arpita Blitzer."

"Nice to meet you," Liquid replied with a polite nod. Her smile fell, the glimmer became even more melancholy, and the bleeding in her chest became more profuse.

"Well, we might as well get to it, but may I ask you something before we do?" Arpita asked as she pulled out a Bowie knife from her back jean pocket.

"Of course," Liquid replied, pulling out his knife and gun as well.

Arpita paused for a bit before asking, "Do you… Are you in love with someone? Currently, I mean?"

"Yes," Liquid replied almost automatically taking both him and Arpita by a little surprise. Her expression went back to melancholy, and the bleeding increased.

"… I see. Is she pretty?"

"She's beautiful."

"… Is that right. What's her name?"

Liquid furrowed his eyebrows in thought before replying, "I haven't learned her real name yet, but for the past two years I've called her Sniper Wolf." Arpita bit her lip, trying to keep something down as the bleeding from her chest nearly stained the entire upper half of her torso a dark red, and muttered something under her breath.

She then looked him in the eye as the bleeding stopped, got into a fighting position, and said, "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go." Liquid immediately took aim and fired; Arpita ducked under the bullet and rushed towards Liquid faster than a bullet train. He just barely blocked her knife before it could stab him straight in the eye. Arpita kicked the pistol out of his hands quicker than he could register and brought her knife back for another strike. Liquid narrowed his eyes and slashed at Arpita's throat; she bent over all the way backwards to avoid it and changed that bend into a backwards handspring. She landed on her feet a foot or so away, but Liquid didn't give her an inch and ran at her with another strike prepared. Arpita blocked the strike, sending Liquid's hand flying backwards, before throwing her knife to her other hand and slashing at Liquid's abdomen.

He had just barely moved backwards to avoid the slash before he had to block another strike near his chest. Liquid slashed for Arpita's face again, and this time she ducked to avoid it; she took advantage of her low position and attempted to kick Liquid's knife from his hands. Liquid smirked and stabbed his knife through her leather boot-covered ankle. Arpita let out a cry of pain and snapped her leg back close to her body, nearly taking Liquid's knife with it. Liquid jumped back a bit as Arpita jumped to her feet again, making sure to keep off of her injured ankle for the time being.

"Not so fast now, eh?" Liquid taunted, tossing his knife from one hand to the other and back again before blocking another strike from Arpita.

"Oh please! An injured ankle has never kept me down. When I was in Germany they called me _die schöne Blitz_. I didn't earn that nickname by letting things like this stop me," Arpita boasted as she parried a strike from Liquid and slashed near his shoulder. Liquid snorted a bit as he dodged another slash and parried another one of her strikes. The girl was nearly as confident of her own abilities as he was of his. Such arrogance had to be eliminated. Arpita dodged two slashes from Liquid before slashing at him herself; Liquid blocked the strike and pushed against the knife like it was a sword to overpower Arpita.

The Indian girl held fast, but Liquid overpowered her quickly, sending her stumbling back a little; Liquid took the opportunity to slash her across the left cheek, leaving a shallow laceration as proof of his blade's presence. Arpita recovered right after that and let out a frustrated growl. Liquid smirked winder, it seemed that even this supposedly demure young woman had her limits, just like everyone else.

"Du wirdst dafür leiden," Arpita growled. Liquid narrowed his eyes; he had learned German as a teenager, so he remembered what that meant.

_I beg to differ, _Liquid thought fiercely, rushing Arpita and nearly catching her off guard with his next slash. She just managed to parry that blow, but Liquid threw his knife to the other hand and slashed from her knee to her thigh on the same leg whose ankle he had stabbed, leaving a slightly deeper cut than he had in her cheek. Arpita hissed and stumbled backwards a bit; she dodged Liquid's next strike, threw her knife to the other hand and slashed close enough to his face that she nicked some of his hair. Her breathing was beginning to grow labored, and Liquid knew he was wearing down the girl's stamina. He grinned wide; Arpita had obviously not been trained in endurance. She was trained to end her battles quick.

Arpita dodged two more strikes from Liquid and slashed near his chest, but Liquid blocked the blow. This time Arpita pushed on his blade, trying to overpower him. Liquid snorted, that was a stupid move. However, he retracted it as Arpita continued to push and he genuinely had to put up an effort to keep her from breaking through. It seemed that she did have some physical strength after all.

But not enough. Liquid held fast and pushed against her as well, quickly turning the tables of this power match. In about thirty seconds Liquid overpowered Arpita, sending the girl's knife and arm reeling backwards. Liquid took the opening and plunged his knife into her chest just a few inches right of her heart. Arpita gasped sharply, her dark eyes widening; they widened again as Liquid tore the knife out. He hadn't stabbed especially deep, so she had about four minutes. Arpita slumped to her knees, but it wasn't enough to keep her upright, so she laid her arms and head over the swing for support; it was a little odd that she had ended up right in front of the swing again…

She looked into his eyes, her dark ones glimmering with that same adoring, wistful, and sorrowful glimmer as she said, "Looks like… my winning streak is… officially over." Liquid just stared at her. She only had two more minutes left.

Arpita took a few shuddering breaths before she whispered, "Bitte, nicht vergessen uber mir wieder." Liquid's eyes softened just a bit when he remembered what that meant.

"Ich werde es versuchen," Liquid replied solemnly. Arpita let out a breath Liquid didn't know she was holding before smiling, laying her head against the plank, closing her eyes, and letting the life leave her. For the brief second before the memories bored their way into Liquid's skull, Liquid mused that if you ignored the blood and lack of signs of life, she just looked like she had fallen asleep…

_Arpita Gwendolyn Blitzer was, according to her 'experiment file', half German, one quarter British, and one quarter Indian. Her father had been from Munich, and he had worked for the people who had created Liquid. After he died when Arpita was four, she and her mother moved back to England. Liquid's lifelong captors had taken her as well, as per her father's contract agreement, and trained her rigorously to be a fast, skilled assassin. Unlike Tristan, she was declared a success. And also, unlike Tristan, she and Liquid had been friends. They had met on her first day in the facility. The currently four-years-old Liquid was in the park on one of his rare days that he was allowed outside, sitting under a tree and generally feeling sorry for himself._

_"Hey, why are you so down, kid?" Liquid looked up quickly to see a little girl with dark hair pinned back, dark eyes, and brown-ish skin. Her accent was a strange mix of English and German, as far as Liquid could tell. She was staring down at him with a semi-frustrated, semi-interested look. Liquid looked away nervously._

_"I-I don't have any friends," Liquid replied, "And my dad hates me…"_

_"My father is dead," Arpita boasted, crossing her arms over her chest confidently._

_Liquid just stared up at her with wide green eyes. "Uh… I-I'm sorry?"_

_"Don't worry about it," Arpita replied, waving it off. "I was just brought to that way-too-clean building today, so I don't have any friends either. My name's Arpita, don't forget it. What's yours?"_

_"My name's James… I live in the really clean building too," Liquid commented. Arpita grinned wide, her small teeth gleaming white in the grayish sunlight._

_"That's great! We can be friends then! C'mon, let's play hide and go seek," Arpita chirped, "These trees could be great for hiding."_

_"What's hide and go seek?" Liquid wondered, cocking his head to the side in confusion. Arpita blinked owlishly a few times before giggling._

_"You really haven't had any friends," she commented._

_She had then explained the game to him, and Liquid's genetic predisposition towards sneaking and hiding made him the master of it. It had ended when Arpita fell out of the tree she had hidden in, bruising herself in several places though insisting she was alright. Liquid had brought her back to the facility anyway. He didn't want his new and only friend getting hurt. A few days later, they made the swing, since Arpita claimed the park was boring with just the trees and grass._

_The two of them remained close friends for the eight years she stayed in the facility. Every now and again they would get into friendly tussles, since Liquid didn't really like fighting with Tristan, and Arpita would always win. She'd be nice about it, however. She knew about his inferiority complex, and she didn't want to make it any worse for him. But Liquid's captors, the organization whose name he never learned, relocated Arpita back to Germany when she was twelve. They didn't want their 'enfant terrible' getting distracted by this friendship any longer; and besides, he was hitting puberty, and having a girl around during that time would only make things even more distracting for him._

_Life had been bleak without his friend, but when he was sixteen he received notice that she was coming back to Britain, specifically to see him. He had been ecstatic for a second, but that died when they told him that he was to kill her when they met. They didn't want any chance of her distracting Liquid ever again. Liquid couldn't refuse. It was an order. They had met in that old park, Arpita sitting on the swing with an adoring smile. Arpita had grown more calm and collected; she had grown to be a lady. She had happily reminisced with him about the old days, remarked on how he had become good looking (but added that he still had a way to go), and became confused when he just stared at her with a solemn face._

_He told her the truth, that he had to kill her. Because he was ordered to. She understood, just like she always did. They fought fair and square for it, since Arpita wanted to relive some of the old times. During their fight, Arpita confessed that she was in love with him. Liquid hadn't known how to respond; at the time, had hadn't known. Now that he was looking back on it, he realized that Arpita truly was his first love… Of course, Sniper Wolf meant everything to him, but you still never forget your first love. It had been a knife fight, but Arpita had knocked his knife away; Liquid, out of instinct had drawn the gun he had concealed._

_Arpita managed to say one last thing before he shot her: "James, du wirst immer meine Liebe sein." She had landed the exact same way she had this time around, and it seemed she had kept her promise._

Liquid stared at Arpita's 'corpse', eyes wide in horror. This girl… this girl had been his only friend, his first love… how could he have forgotten her like that? How could he have been his normal arrogant self towards her in that fight? He was disgusted with himself… that was something that his father probably would do. That was probably something he _had_ done. Liquid closed the distance between himself and Arpita, kneeling down by her side. Her bangs were falling across her face, so Liquid brushed them behind her ears. He didn't know why she had stopped pinning her bangs back… it hid her pretty eyes. On that note, Liquid gently opened her eyelids. Though they were dulled, her dark eyes still seemed to hold all the life they always did.

"Arpita… verzeih mir, verzeih mir. Du warst meine erste Liebe, Gott verzeih mir," Liquid whispered, tears running down his cheeks. Liquid leaned into her cold, dead arm, constantly whispering 'verzeih mir'. God, he _hated _them so much. Those damn people who had kept him captive his whole life, who had allowed his father to constantly abuse him like he did, who made him kill Tristan and Arpita…

"I swear, I'll find them and I'll kill them all," Liquid growled. He then got to his feet, giving Arpita's 'corpse' one last look before turning to the door he knew was there. It was a pristine white and just standing in the middle of the air with no rhyme or reason. Liquid wiped the last of his tears away, took a deep, shuddering breath, and walked through the door.

_The title means 'the beautiful lightning bolt'. Here's a translation of all the German dialogue, for all of you who are too lazy to use Google language tools. I won't say who said what, that's probably easy enough to guess since it's all in order from first to last._

_"You will suffer for that."_

_"Please, do not forget about me again."_

_"I'll try."_

_"You will always be my love."_

_"Forgive me, forgive me. You were my first love, God forgive me."_


	3. Chapter 3: Desert Ruins

_Sorry for the super long gap between updates ladies and GENTLEMEN, it's been crazy. Finals finished up yesterday, and I had to study and all that good stuff. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT MY BORING LIFE. So, how could Liquid possibly proceed after going through something so sad? Well, he's Liquid Fucking Snake! He can take anything! Except stupidly named diseases, but that's neither here nor there. Let's roll~! I own nothing canon in Metal Gear Solid, I do own my characters and Liquid's past. _

_**-Desert Ruin-**_

When Liquid stepped through the door, he was almost bowled over by the intense change in climate; in a split second it went from mildly cold to blistering hot. There was dust and sand in the air, and enough of it that Liquid felt like he was breathing in a sand dune. He shielded his face from the onslaught of sun and sand, gritting his teeth and squinting in displeasure. Why he would have ever gone out here- wherever 'here' was, anyway- of his own will was beyond him. But after a minute or so, Liquid had gotten accustomed to it once more. Of course he did, this _was _a place from his past after all. Liquid lowered his arm and looked around through squinted eyes at his surroundings.

He had to restrain his eyes from widening when he discovered what exactly he was looking at. It was a grand ruin, and a very large one. Dilapidated spires and pillars were littered about the sand-covered marble foundation, and many destroyed buildings and temples coexisted with them. In the very center was a rather strange structure; it looked rather like a Mayan pyramid, but it wasn't very high up and there were just four pillars on the top and the remains of a throne. Despite the fact that it was, well, a _ruin_, the structure was actually rather beautiful in it's own way. Liquid beheld it for a minute or two…

"This city's name was lost to history, as were its people and nearly everything else it possessed. We always got along for that reason! The two of us knew what it was like to lose everything!" Liquid's head snapped up to the top of the strange temple to see something he hadn't before. An Arabic man stood atop the structure, this man looking to be around middle age with several battle scars on his face. One of those scars ran through his left eye, which appeared to be blind. Like Liquid, this man didn't wear a shirt, though he did wear a black flak jacket. There were even more scars on his torso, and a few burns were interspersed between them.

"Let me guess Ra'id, my name is lost in your history too!" the Arabic man declared with a scowl. Liquid raised an eyebrow; why was he calling him Ra'id? He didn't have any memories of the Gulf War yet, so he was rightfully confused.

"You take my son, my men, and now my name from me! You truly are the worst person this world has to offer," the man snapped, his scowl deepening. "But I'll tell you it anyway, though you're not worthy enough to know it after forgetting it. I am Abu Ghalib Fahad al-Ghazi ibn Hamzah al-Assad! I would tell you not to forget it again, but I'm about to take everything from you in turn! Get ready to die, Ra'id!" Liquid barely had time to process before Fahad grabbed a rocket launcher from behind one of the pillars, set it on his shoulder, and aimed at Liquid. Liquid's eyes widened and he resisted the urge to gasp, instead running behind the nearest pillar. His hiding place only held up for about a second before Fahad fired at him and broke the top half of the pillar.

"Hiding will get you nowhere, Ra'id!" Fahad shouted, letting out a crazed cackle as he did. Liquid cursed under his breath as he leapt out of his temporary hiding place and dashed behind a wall. Another rocket just barely missed him and took out the section of wall next to him; a sharp section of the exploding rock scratched his cheek, making Liquid wince. He dodged more rubble and another rocket before he realized that an Arabic soldier was running towards him with bloodlust in his eyes. Liquid growled like a feral beast; he didn't have time for this! Quicker than ever before, Liquid pulled out his knife and flung it straight into the soldier's forehead. It dug down straight to the hilt, and the soldier hit the ground instantly. Liquid had enough time to grab his knife and start running again before the memory made its way into his head. He ignored the one of killing the man, since the man was simply a red-shirt he had taken down in a much larger fight, and skipped straight to the important one…

_"So, I'm going to be a sleeper agent?" Liquid wondered, raising an eyebrow. _

_"Yup, that's the gist of it!" a man somewhat older than Liquid replied with a cheerful smile. He had brown hair tied into a ponytail, one brown eye and one blue eye, and dressed in nearly all brown. All his facial hair was isolated to his chin, though there still wasn't much of it. _

_Liquid scratched the back of his head nervously and said, "But… Are you really sure I can do it? I mean, Luke, I'm only good for piloting and-" 'Luke'_ _placed a hand on Liquid's shoulder and gave him a somewhat serious look. Liquid quickly shut up._

_"James, don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, if what I've been told is true, then you have the potential to be one of the greatest soldiers the world has ever seen. You'll do just fine out here. And, I gave you the codename Ra'id for a reason. I think one day you will be a great leader," Luke replied in a calm, somewhat-brotherly tone. Liquid stared at Luke in shock; nobody had ever said anything like that to him in all eighteen years of his life. It felt… Liquid wasn't entirely sure how it felt just yet. However, he smiled back at Luke all the same. _

_"A-alright, I won't let you down," Liquid replied. Luke grinned wide and patted him hard on the back, causing Liquid to wince. _

_"That's what I like to hear!" Luke chirped, ruffling Liquid's hair. "Don't worry kid, I'll be watchin' out for ya." _

Liquid furrowed his eyebrows as he dodged another rocket and snuck up on another soldier; that 'Luke' person… Liquid couldn't finish his thought as another missile whizzed right past his head. He cursed under his breath and changed direction in his running.

"You're slipping, Ra'id! _Slipping!_" Fahad shouted. Liquid let out a growl and glared in the direction of Fahad (not directly at him, since he was behind another wall); Liquid could tell why he had killed the obnoxious man.

Liquid ran through the city, gunning and cutting down enemies while rolling around pillars, behind walls and into temples to avoid the rockets Fahad shot his way. His memories all consisted of the Gulf War and his time with the Air Force, which nearly guaranteed that most of them would be happy. Liquid didn't have much time to process them, however, since he was busy dodging miniature warheads and trying to survive. He was also trying to block out Fahad's constant shouting and cackling. God _damn _that man could talk! Liquid wouldn't have been surprised if he had killed Fahad for simply being annoying.

But Liquid was able to figure out more about that 'Luke' guy from his memories. Luke Highwind had been Liquid's friend and mentor in the SAS, being like the older brother Liquid would never truly have, being a twin and all. But he had no idea what happened to him, his memories cut off before he could figure this out…

Liquid rolled behind another wall as Fahad blew up his last hiding place. Liquid had taken out all the soldiers by this point, and now it was just him, Fahad, and Fahad's rocket launcher. He gritted his teeth, Liquid was sick of running! He had to wipe the smug grin off of Fahad's face, preferably in the most violent way possible.

"That's right Ra'id! Keep scurrying around and hiding like a little rabbit! It's done you _so _well in this fight so far," Fahad called, his psychotic grin taking up most of his face. "Fight me! Face to face, man to man!"

Liquid bit his tongue, keeping himself from calling back to Fahad. He wanted to tell the bastard off, but he couldn't. With that monster over his shoulder, Liquid wouldn't be able to get anywhere near…

_I'll need a long-range weapon of my own, _Liquid thought, narrowing his eyes. Liquid darted out from behind the wall to hide behind another pillar, pausing there to search the nearby corpses of the soldiers with his eyes for anything he could use to counter Fahad's rocket launcher. He was able to determine that they had none before he had to run to a new hiding place to escape falling bits of pillar and a rocket from Fahad. Liquid continued his dart-and-search method for several minutes, not finding a single weapon capable of taking on Fahad's beast of a weapon.

Liquid rolled behind a wall, nearly ready to give up on his search and just try a trick-shot. He had dodged around almost the entire perimeter by this point, and he hadn't found a single thing. He looked around the three corpses near him and almost started running again when he spotted an RPG strapped to the back of one of his late enemies. Liquid grinned a grin nearly as mad as Fahad's and snatched the RPG, breaking back into a run once he did. Liquid ran nearly the whole perimeter once more, this time just trying to get a good angle on Fahad.

_I'm going to blow the bastard's head clean off, I swear, _Liquid thought to himself with a growl. After getting closer and finding the exactly perfect spot to shoot from, Liquid crouched behind a wall with the RPG on his shoulder ready to fire. Fahad spotted his hiding place and shot right above his head, but Liquid did not flinch. He had to get the right shot…

"Oh, so _now _you're fighting!" Fahad yelled. Liquid grinned wide and pulled the trigger; the RPG ripped through the air toward Fahad, and Fahad just barely noticed it in time. His dark eyes widened, and Fahad attempted to dodge. Liquid scowled, now he wouldn't get his head blown off! The RPG hit Fahad on the right shoulder, exploding and blowing his arm clean off. Fahad let out a howl of pain and clutched the bleeding stump, dropping his rocket launcher to the ground. He glared directly at Liquid with a glare so hate-filled that it almost _hurt_.

"My arm! Now you take my arm! Is there nothing you will not take from me? That's it, Ra'id!" Fahad roared, lifting up the rocket launcher with one hand. Liquid's eyes widened, he wouldn't have been able to lift that thing with one hand! Fahad's strength was insane! The Arab fired another rocket, but his blinding rage, pain and the fact he was only holding it with one hand seriously messed up Fahad's aim. The rocket hit about four feet to the left of Liquid and plowed straight into the ground, but that didn't decrease its danger. Liquid hopped to his feet and was on the run once more.

_Okay, what now? My last plan was a failure, I've got to think of something else, _Liquid thought frantically as a rocket just barely missed his foot. Now that Fahad was angrier than ever, Liquid was actually getting a little scared of the normally annoying Arab. Liquid ducked into a mostly-intact temple and pressed himself into the farthest wall, catching his breath in there. He could hear Fahad's shouts and the explosions made by rockets hitting marble from in there, and it only made him want to hyperventilate. This time, he wasn't entirely sure he'd make it out of this…

He then spied one of the soldiers he had killed right outside the temple. In one of his hands was a saif, a curved Arabic blade. Something twitched in the back of his mind, a memory he had not yet regained, but something about that sword provoked a righteous fury he had never felt before and the image of Luke in his mind. He felt a strange urge to use it against Fahad, even though that would be unwise… Liquid let out a growl and ran out of the temple, grabbing the saif as he did, and ran head-on towards Fahad and the throne pedestal in the center of the city.

"You! You finally came out! YOU WILL PAY!" Fahad shouted, pointing the rocket launcher straight at Liquid and firing. Liquid easily swerved around the rocket, focused on one thing and one thing only: the death of Fahad by his sword. Fahad continued to shoot at Liquid as he made his way into the center of the city and up the pedestal, Liquid dodging every single one and keeping a tight grip on his sword. Fahad was now the one beginning to look worried as he ran out of rockets and Liquid was charging him with a blade in one hand. When he was in range, Liquid raised the blade above his head and let out a roar; Fahad tried to dodge, but Liquid was quicker. He swung the saif right through Fahad's neck, not stopping until he had severed it completely. Fahad's head fell clean off and rolled down the pedestal to the streets below, the strength leaving his legs and his body falling to the ground.

Liquid lowered his sword and took a few deep breaths as he waited for the memories to come crashing down into his mind…

_Apparently somewhere along the way in the very middle of the war, Liquid's cover had supposedly been blown and the Arabs had figured out who he really was. He was knocked out, taken underneath the destroyed city they called their headquarters, tied up and beaten. He was now effectively a prisoner of war. After all of that, Liquid had been thrown in a small, dark room, and that's where most of his memories cut off…_

_The next one in chronological order began with being yanked off the ground by his hair. Liquid let out a grunt of pain and glared up at whoever was gripping his hair. It was Fahad- though Liquid hadn't known this at the time- and damn if he didn't look furious. _

_"… This is definitely the one," Fahad stated. "So, how does it feel to betray a man's trust? How does it feel to take that same man's son from him? I have a feeling that you didn't lose a wink of sleep over either of those things."_

_"Why should a soldier feel guilty for carrying out his mission-" Liquid began before Fahad smashed his head into the wall forcefully. Liquid let out another cry of pain. _

_"Soldier! You call yourself a soldier! You're no soldier Ra'id, you're something much worse," Fahad growled._

_"You didn't let me finish," Liquid coughed. Fahad raised an eyebrow questioningly. _

_"And why should a man feel guilty for a crime he didn't commit?" Liquid finished. _

_"Liar! We have proof of what you did, of Ghalib's murder by your hands!" Fahad claimed fiercely. He turned to the doorway and called something that Liquid didn't quite hear since Fahad's hand was covering one of his ears while the other was smashed into the wall. Fahad dragged Liquid brusquely by the hair out of the room and into a nearby one. This seemed to be a surveillance room, seeing as one of the walls was covered in monitors and there were several video tapes marked as security footage lying about. _

_"Play the footage of Ghalib's murder. Make this scum relive the evil he committed," Fahad commanded. With a nod of acknowledgment, one of Fahad's men pressed a few buttons on the control panel for the surveillance monitors. On the screen directly in the middle, static raged for a second or two before the picture switched to the dark of night on one of the pillars. A young man who looked quite a bit like Fahad was patrolling the area; Liquid could hear Fahad choke something back, but he was unsure what exactly it was. The scene remained unchanged for a minute or two before a man in a hooded white cloak-like garment snuck up behind the young man. In nearly five seconds he had gotten Fahad's son in a headlock, and it took the cloaked man two seconds more to break his neck. Liquid had to admire his efficiency- he couldn't, however, since Fahad's grip on his hair tightened painfully. _

_The young man's corpse fell to the ground, and for about thirty seconds the cloaked man's face could be seen. Liquid's eyes widened; he and the cloaked man looked nearly identical! However, Liquid's unnaturally enhanced vision showed him clearly through the cover of darkness that there were two important differences here. Liquid's eyes were green, but this man had blue, and the small amount of the cloaked man's hair that Liquid could see was much darker than his own. They had the wrong man! But Liquid knew that Fahad was too far gone to listen to him now…_

_"You can't deny _that_, Ra'id. And I'll make you suffer every day here for killing Ghalib, I promise you," Fahad hissed, lifting Liquid up again, this time to his eye level. All Liquid could do was wince in pain some more. _

_Fahad made damn good on his promise. For three whole years Fahad kept Liquid captive down there, torturing and tormenting him any chance he got. For now, all Liquid could remember was the pain and suffering, since those were the only memories he had gotten back. Liquid remembered nearly dying a few times. _

_In 1994, he had had it with being a POW. He had already begun his escape plan- which consisted of wriggling out of his cell and killing anyone in his way on his way to the outside world- when from nowhere he had been rescued. Liquid had succeeded in getting out of his cell, but before he could unleash the fury of Hell upon the nearest Arab soldier, the man started for a second before his eyes widened and his head slid clean off his neck from a neat, diagonal slice. Liquid's eyes widened as the corpse and head of the man fell to the floor to reveal Luke Highwind holding a blood-covered saif, grinning at him triumphantly. Liquid was speechless; after all this time, his mentor was here…_

_Luke's grin turned sheepish and he remarked, "Damn, James, you're nearly taller than me! I should've gotten here sooner, when you were still just a kid." Liquid frowned a bit, and Luke chuckled some more. He ruffled Liquid's hair, which was a little weird since Liquid was no longer shorter than Luke but still held that same brotherly warmth, his grin turning warm again while Liquid flushed a bit in embarrassment and other emotions._

_"Come on, let's get you out of here," Luke said. The two of them then made their way through the base, taking down any of the Arab soldiers that got in their way. Liquid felt his confidence and joy growing; fighting beside Luke again was something he had missed for far too long. Luke and Liquid had nearly gotten to the exit when things turned bad. The two of them wheeled around the corner fast enough to hurt themselves doing so and were prepared to barrel on through to the outside world when they were forced to stop in their tracks by a bullet piercing Liquid's shoulder and grazing Luke's right arm. _

_Liquid let out a grunt of pain and Luke turned to where the bullet originated from; standing in the beam of light from the open exit was Fahad holding a smoking Mk.23 SOCOM in one hand with a look of angry determination in his dark eyes. Luke scowled at the Arab man, obviously pissed at the guy who had kept his protégé/surrogate brother captive for four whole years. _

_"I'm not letting either of you get out that easy. You've killed my men, and Ra'id murdered my son. This will _not _go unpunished," Fahad growled. _

_Luke got into a fighting stance, sword at the ready, and hissed back, "Fine by me. I've been itching for a good fight." _

_Luke looked over his shoulder at Liquid and ordered, "Stay back from this. You don't have any weapons on you, don't push your luck." _

_"But Luke-!" _

_"I'll be fine, just stay back!" Luke snapped, turning back to Fahad. Liquid gulped, but did as his mentor commanded. Fahad immediately shot at Luke, Luke dodging it effortlessly and dashing straight towards Fahad. He swung at Fahad several times but the Arab just dodged them all and shot a few more times at Luke. Fahad actually missed Luke on most of those shots, but Luke had to dodge the last one. Luke sliced through the air just in front of Fahad's face, the Arab bending backwards to avoid it. Luke smirked and took the small opening presented to him to punch Fahad hard in the stomach. Fahad let out a gasp and doubled over… shoving the saif's blade right into his eye. _

_Fahad let out a howl of pain and rocketed back from Luke, Luke letting out a satisfied chuckle. The Arab let out a growl and hit Luke with a powerful uppercut, sending the brunette toppling to the ground. _

_"Luke!" Liquid shouted, letting his emotions take him over and running towards Luke. Fahad growled again and aimed the SOCOM at Liquid, pulling the trigger before Liquid could notice. Liquid heard the gunshot a moment too late; he knew he couldn't avoid it and shut his eyes tight, bracing himself for the pain… But they rocketed open when he heard Luke let out a shout of pain. His eyes widened even more when he saw Luke in front of him with his arms outstretched in a shielding gesture, the right side of his chest bleeding profusely. He had taken the bullet for him…_

_"Oh my God…" Liquid just barely managed to choke out, shaking his head slowly. Luke's knees gave out and he nearly fell to the ground, but Liquid caught him before he could. Luke took a few ragged breaths before looking Liquid in the eyes with a sad smile. _

_"J-James… I'm so proud of you…" Luke whispered. Liquid gritted his teeth and held back a sob; this couldn't be happening, he wouldn't let it happen! He had already lost Arpita, Tristan… Was he ever allowed to keep anyone he cared about? _

_"Keep going, James… I… See you later," Luke choked out before he closed his eyes and went limp in Liquid's arms. All Liquid could do was stare at him with his eyes wide. No words ran through his mind… None at all…_

_"Hurts, doesn't it Ra'id? That man was like family to you, and I can't tell you how much it hurts to lose family-" Liquid snarled and grabbed the pistol from Luke's leg holster, pointing it straight at Fahad. _

_"SHUT UP!" Liquid shouted. Before Fahad could even think of how to respond Liquid pulled the trigger, shooting Fahad right in the center of the forehead. He went down quicker than any of his other final opponents. Liquid dropped Luke's corpse and charged out of the underground part of the base, not even bothering shielding his eyes from the sunlight outside. He was filled with a rage more powerful than anything he had ever experienced before along with adrenaline and of course overwhelming sadness. He gunned down any Arab soldiers in his way. That was what he needed right now, to kill and fight until he could barely stand. _

_Liquid had taken out nearly every single soldier that foolishly ran towards him when he saw something on the horizon; he squinted as it came closer, and was both pleased and pissed to find that it was a fleet of F16's being piloted by more Arab soldiers. He threw his gun to the side and turned to face the incoming horde. He didn't need a weapon to take on these bastards…_

Liquid took a deep breath as the memory faded out, then looked at the sword he was holding in his hand. He didn't remember any of the soldiers he fought having a sword when he had killed them before… He smiled a bit at what came to mind before glaring at Fahad's corpse. Unlike his last two final opponents, Liquid didn't regret this one a bit. This man deserved everything he got. Liquid then gritted his teeth; it was Snake's fault, ALL Snake's fault that he had been kept captive and tortured for four years! His hatred for his brother grew stronger and stronger with every second he pondered that point. Liquid then looked to the very edge of the pedestal to see the door he was waiting for. This one was actually a dark brown color, but that was hardly important.

Liquid took a moment to flick the still-wet blood off the saif's blade before setting it upright in the remains of the throne.

"Thank you," Liquid whispered. He then walked around the throne and through the door to what he was nearly certain was the final stage of this journey…


	4. Chapter 4: Compilation

_Alright, we're at the very end ladies and gentlemen~! After this we pick up in Howling At The Moon chapter 14! So, Liquid defeated the dude with the longest name ever, and is now on his way to get the rest of his life back and force his dad out of his body! We're in for a wild ride (possibly) my duckies, let's roll~! I own nothing besides my OCs and Liquid's past. _

_**-Compilation-**_

Liquid stepped through the door to find himself in room temperature once more. For a second or so Liquid wondered to himself why he was constantly comparing the temperatures of these different locations when he came across them, but he brushed the thought off a second or two later. Liquid glanced around his surroundings, and from what he could tell he was in a fairly large hallway made entirely of steel, save the ceiling. The ceiling seemed to be made out of glass, and Liquid could see thick, light grey clouds through the glass.

He then jumped, because a few feet forward from where he was looking Manic Rat was hanging onto the ceiling, nearly every part of her save her braided hair pushed flat against the glass. She didn't appear to be breathing, and was just staring at Liquid with her dark eyes wide and her mouth pressed into a fine line. How did she think she could blend in with the clouds and glass when she was blonde, tan, and wore predominantly black? Rat realized that she had been spotted right then, and her face broke into a big grin. Rat dropped down from the ceiling, landing perfectly on both feet to smile brightly at Liquid.

"Hey there Liquid~! About time you got here, I've been waiting for hours!" Rat chirped, winking at Liquid good-naturedly. Liquid blinked a few times to organize his thoughts before he smiled at Rat and gave her a nod of acknowledgment.

"Before you ask, this place isn't from any of your memories. You just kind of made it up one day, it only exists in your head," Rat explained, pointing at the walls as an indication of what she was talking about, "So… Looks like you'll have to kill me again, huh?"

Liquid raised an eyebrow and commented, "I thought you said you didn't want to fight in the afterlife."

"Yeah, and I'm not going to," Rat replied matter-of-factly, folding her arms over her chest. The two blondes stared at each other in silence for a little while before Liquid pulled out his gun and pointed it at Rat, somewhat disbelieving to the fact that she'd go down this easy. Rat didn't flinch and just stared ahead at Liquid. He pulled the trigger, and right as the bullet left the chamber Rat's face exploded into a giant, mischievous grin.

She bent over all the way backwards, her hands touching the floor, to dodge the bullet; Rat quickly turned that impromptu yoga pose into a handspring, bouncing backwards about five feet and landing perfectly once more. Liquid's eyes widened in surprise. To say he was shocked would be an understatement, though not the understatement of the year. Perhaps the week.

"I never said I wouldn't _run_~!" Rat called over her shoulder as she broke out into a sprint down the hall.

Liquid blinked once before he frowned and ran after her, gun and knife at the ready. Liquid continued to shoot at Rat as she scampered away from him- since he wasn't close enough to throw his knife at her- and she either dodged or blocked with one of her knives. She also bounced off the walls and ceiling, constantly keeping him guessing on where to aim since she changed position so fast.

Liquid let out a low growl as he chased after Rat; games of cat and mouse were not his thing. He preferred either an honest fight or a quick kill, chases were long and irritating. He was so preoccupied with catching and killing Rat that when they came across the first of his enemies Liquid barely noticed the soldier.

What _did _get him to notice the uniformed man was Rat scurrying his way and dragging the man in front of her as a human shield right as Liquid had shot at her. The bullet meant for rat went straight into the forehead of the surprised soldier, killing him instantly. Rat flung him to the side as Liquid regained a few memories from the man, but Liquid pushed them to the side to make room for his surprise at Rat's action. She could've just dodged, and probably would've under any other circumstances. But instead she went out of her way to make sure that man died instead of her… Was she _helping him? _

Liquid decided he'd figure that out as they went along, trying to find another opening he could use to shoot Rat while skimming over the contents of the memories he had just gained. From what he could tell, they weren't linked by any sort of theme like the others, and weren't all that important either. They were just leftovers, the small things he still needed to be complete. Liquid didn't know exactly what to think of that, so he just focused on trying to kill Rat.

Liquid and Rat continued their chase for quite a few yards down the hallway, Liquid shooting at Rat while she dodged, blocked, and used human shields to absorb the bullets. Seeing as she used every soldier they came across as a shield, there was no doubt that Rat was helping him. He wasn't sure if that made sense or not, and decided that now wasn't the best time to figure that out. There were dozens and dozens of soldiers that Rat used as meat shields, which lead Liquid to believe that the majority of the enemies must be in this area of the strange environment he created.

Rat threw her latest human shield aside and dodged another one of Liquid's shots. Liquid frowned, just how long was this going to take? Liquid's frustration then turned to confusion as his chase led the two of them into a small, circular room with a very tall ceiling. Liquid quirked an eyebrow in confusion, what was up with this room? Liquid took another shot at Rat, but she dodged and leapt onto one of the walls, running across it.

That answered his question right there; this was a special arena made just for Rat. Liquid's frown deepened, and he locked his gaze on the blonde woman. She was in her element here, Liquid couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

_I'll get her in one shot, _Liquid thought decisively. He aimed at Rat, keeping his gaze locked on her as she jumped from wall to curved wall. Obviously, she was going to keep jumping and running just to keep things difficult, so Liquid would have to keep a sharp eye on her. Liquid waited for nearly five minutes as Rat ran across the walls and jumped up and down them, smirking down at him and just _daring _him to shoot and miss again. He wouldn't give in. He had to wait for the right moment, and damn it he was going to do that!

Rat ran a few feet across the right side before leaping over to the left side. Liquid smirked as she neared the left wall; now! Liquid pulled the trigger, his bullet flying out and hitting Rat right in the shoulder. She let out a cry of pain that got much louder when she hit the wall. Liquid could only cringe. Rat was able to gather her bearings as she began to fall, so she used her good arm and legs to help her skid down the wall and slow her descent. Rat hit the ground gracefully as ever, and smiled over at Liquid.

"Very nice, Liquid. You've improved," Rat remarked kindly. "Alright then, I'm ready. Go ahead, shoot."

Liquid aimed at her with a sad half-smile and said, "Thank you for helping me, Rat."

She shook her head and replied, "Nah, don't mention it. By the way, there's not much of this place left before you get to your last fight. And there are probably about four soldiers left, so… Alright, let's do this. Shoot me." She closed her eyes, her smile still there, as she braced herself for Liquid's soon to come bullet.

Liquid nodded and complied, shooting Rat right between the eyes. She fell to the ground with a peaceful expression. Liquid waited for another surge of memories, but none came. He chuckled a little, it made sense. He had killed her recently and remembered it, so obviously he wouldn't get anything from her.

Liquid made his way out of the room and down the hall. True enough, there were four soldiers right outside the room. Liquid dealt with them easily, and that left the rest of his trek to the final confrontation to be very uneventful. Liquid inhaled and exhaled deeply as he walked at a leisurely- but not slow- pace down the hall, reflecting over everything he had gotten back…

_"Oi, you're late! Decided ya'd keep me fecking waiting, eh? What, am I not fecking good enough for ya to be on time to our fight? Ya never change, James! You'll always be that bloody dirtball who always thought he was fecking better than me!"_

_"Shut your trap ya feckin' dirtball! I oughta punch that smirk right off yer face! You're not better than me, don't think that ya are!"_

_"Do you… Are you in love with someone? Currently, I mean?"_

_"That's great! We can be friends then!"_

_"James, don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, if what I've been told is true, then you have the potential to be one of the greatest soldiers the world has ever seen. You'll do just fine out here. And, I gave you the codename Ra'id for a reason. I think one day you will be a great leader."_

_"J-James… I'm so proud of you… Keep going, James… I… See you later."_

Liquid noticed that thinking of Tristan, Arpita, and Luke had slowed his pace just a bit, but he didn't really care. All of them had cared about him, in their own different ways. He had been forced to take two of them out of his life by his own hand, and the other had sacrificed himself _just _so he could keep going. Liquid bit his lip; they probably expected far more of him, of the life he was living. He was letting them down. Liquid gritted his teeth, he would change that as soon as he got his memories and body back.

But there were still things he needed back. He didn't feel whole yet, he knew there were things missing. And when he got back into his body, would he still be the kind of person able to lead FOXHOUND? Would he lose his kinship with Wolf, or fall out of love with her? Those thoughts made Liquid shudder. He was so confused; he didn't know which to hold onto, the past, the present, or the future. Liquid looked over his shoulder. The opening into the room he had fought Rat in was closed. Liquid let out a sigh. His mind had made this place, so it was obvious what it was telling him through that.

There was no going back.

Liquid moved forward now at a quicker pace. He wouldn't know for certain what the future would hold until he became whole again, and to do that he had to keep going. Liquid slowed down just a bit about a yard from where the hall opened up in the room where he'd face his last opponent so he could take a deep breath, and he let it out as he walked into the room. This room was nearly identical to the one at the end of the labyrinth, though there were no pillars in this one and no shadows either. Liquid's final opponent stood in the exact center of the room, and Liquid's eyes widened to twice their size when he saw who it was.

Standing in the center of the room… was Liquid Snake.

Liquid was staring directly at himself.

However, there were a few small but distinct differences between the two of them. This version had a black coat instead of a brown one with the collar flipped up, black boots, black gloves, and most important of all an eye-patch covering where his right eye had once been.

"What the- you're…" Liquid began before his doppelganger cut him off.

"You? Yes, it would appear that way. Actually, that's not entirely accurate," the other Liquid interrupted. "I'm a physical representation of the memories and tidbits of personality that you haven't gotten back yet. Naturally, I have no shape. But I decided that I might as well take one on, so I chose you. I made my own adjustments, of course."

"And why did you choose to have an eye-patch?" Liquid questioned, narrowing his eyes a bit.

The doppelganger grinned and replied, "Mostly just to mess with you." Liquid glared at him, and he grinned wider at this reaction.

"What should I call you?" Liquid asked.

His doppelganger put a hand to his chin and pondered that for a minute before he replied, "Call me James."

"Anyways, time's wasting. Let's get to it," James declared, getting into a fighting stance. Liquid instinctually reached for his gun, but once again James spoke up.

"Ah ah ah, Liquid. We're having a fist fight here. That means no guns," he chided with a smirk. Liquid glared at him again before getting in his own fighting stance. They immediately began circling around like a pair of sharks around a cornered seal, both with green eyes locked on the other.

Liquid made the first move, running towards James with a fist pulled back for a right hook. He let out a wordless yell when he was in range and threw his punch, his doppelganger smoothly ducking under it and using the opportunity to kick Liquid in the chest and send him staggering backwards a foot or so.

James rushed forward, his own fist pulled back for a left hook, but Liquid caught him off guard by recovering quickly and delivering a powerful uppercut that sent James reeling backwards. Liquid got in two more hits on James's chest before he had to avoid a straight punch to the face via crouching.

Liquid took the opportunity his position gave him and swept his doppelganger's feet out from under him, but James did likewise by purposefully jumping to avoid Liquid's kick and hitting him square in the face with a spinning roundhouse kick.

Liquid let out a grunt of pain as the kick sent him sprawling to the ground, rolling over to avoid any more possible blows from James. Liquid jumped to his feet just in time to dodge another punch from James. Liquid hit James with a right hook, but he recovered quickly and punched Liquid hard in the stomach.

Liquid went reeling back a few feet, the wind knocked out of him, and James took the opportunity to close the distance between them and hit Liquid twice in the chest and in the stomach again while he was still off guard. The force of these blows slammed Liquid into the wall, knocking whatever wind he had regained back out of him.

Liquid used the few seconds he had to catch his breath as James prepared another attack before glaring fiercely at his doppelganger. He wasn't going to lose. He had come too far to lose to himself. Liquid let out a growl and ran forwards, catching James off guard. He prepared to block another blow, but Liquid didn't hit him.

No, he did a move he was quite proud of: as soon as he was in range, Liquid leapt at James with a wordless roar, tackling his doppelganger and taking him completely by surprise. James let out a short yelp of surprise before he and Liquid crashed to the ground. While James was still disoriented by that very strange attack, Liquid jumped back into a fighting position.

James staggered to his feet, and Liquid didn't give him an inch. Liquid struck James with a powerful uppercut, sending him backwards even more. When James's head whipped back into place, Liquid hit him with a hard left hook. James barely knew what hit him as Liquid kneed him in the stomach and roundhouse kicked him in the face opposite his left hook. James staggered to the right, unable to keep his balance, but Liquid gave him no mercy. Quick as lightning, Liquid grabbed James's arm and flung him across the room, James landing hard on the floor with a cry of pain.

"One, two, three, four, and five," Liquid muttered with a smirk.

James struggled to get on his knees, coughing up a little bit of blood as he did. He and Liquid turned to each other, James regarding Liquid with one eye wide while Liquid just grinned at him.

"… Impressive. I think you're ready," James murmured, smiling a bit. "Please, kill me now." Liquid's grin fell for some reason he didn't know yet as he walked over to James, pulling out his gun when he reached him and pointing it straight at his forehead. Liquid rested his finger on the trigger, but it took him a little bit to pull it…

"Are you… You're _hesitating_, aren't you?" James wondered with an amused smirk.

"I'm not sure… I'm not sure if I should actually go through with this, I don't know if I'll like who I become," Liquid admitted, looking away.

"You're nervous… Don't be. It's going to be fine. The two of us will be whole again. And trust me, being whole is better than being incomplete," James said in a calming tone. "I was created when you lost all your memories. I was frightened and alone in a foreign mind, and I felt incomplete. Please, I want to be whole again. Please, kill me." Liquid stared at James's one, pleading eye for a while.

It was true… Liquid had been frightened and alone after losing his memories. He needed to be whole, too. Liquid gulped and aimed again, and after thirty seconds or mental preparation, Liquid pulled the trigger. He looked away at the last second, so he ended up shooting out James's other eye. But nonetheless, he killed him, and James fell to the floor with a smile on his face.

Liquid could hardly take the chance to think about his last adversary before the memories and personality of James came surging into his mind. Too many things going far too fast for Liquid to count, the pain and strain on his mind was unbearable. Liquid grunted in pain, clutching his head and doubling over. Oh Jesus- God- it hurt so much! Liquid let out a few gasping breaths as he tried to ignore splitting pain, and suddenly he was falling backwards. He blacked out before he could hit the hard steel floor.

_Darkness…_

_Darkness…_

_And then…?_

Liquid felt as though he was floating, though not in air. No, more like… water. Though he knew his eyes were closed, all he could see behind his eyelids was white. He felt… different. Something had changed. And that was when he realized that he had gotten everything back. He skimmed through his whole life in his mind; it was all there! He felt- he felt-… _whole_. Complete. Liquid wanted to smile and laugh, but he was so tired and so relieved that he also just wanted to keep floating in this strange void of white. That was when the voices cut through.

"He did it! I knew he would!" a cheerful, young, female, adoring, part-British part-German voice exclaimed. Liquid could _hear_ her bouncing for joy, all injuries sustained earlier gone due to the fact she was already dead.

"Calm down there sweetheart, you might wake him up too early. Kid still needs his rest," a calm, laid-back, male, oddly American, and secretly full of pride voice remarked with a small chuckle.

"Ha! He didn't flake out at the last second! You owe me five bucks Tristan," another female, confident, American, and strangely happy voice declared.

"What's the point a' bettin' if we don' have any money?" a frustrated, male, young, Irish, and reluctantly glad voice asked.

"… Shut up," the American female snapped.

"Hey, guys, I think he's waking up," the British/German female commented in a more hushed tone.

"Well, tall dark and bleeding from the eye will get pissed at us if we hang around too much longer, so let's split," the American male proclaimed. Liquid opened his eyes; he was alone in that familiar dark grey void, lying flat on the not-entirely-there floor. He no longer felt tired, but he was a little sad that Arpita, Tristan, Luke and Rat were all gone. However, Liquid smiled to himself. He'd meet them again one day, on the other side. But now, now he was whole, and he had to make the most of that.

_Thank you, thank you all_, Liquid thought, _thank you for helping me, now and in the past. I promise I won't forget you again. But now… Now FOXHOUND and Wolf need me. I've got to keep going, right? _

Liquid got to his feet, not feeling tired any more. In fact, he felt completely refreshed. Right then The Sorrow faded into the void a few feet away with an expression Liquid couldn't quite describe.

"So, it seems you were successful in this test," The Sorrow remarked. Liquid grinned and nodded, eliciting a small smile from The Sorrow as well.

"Psycho Mantis, Revolver Ocelot and Decoy Octopus are back at FOXHOUND headquarters. Octopus has taken your shape so that you may possess his body. You'll have to physically incapacitate your father before forcing him out of your body and back into the other side," The Sorrow explained. "However, Octopus injected himself with some of the poison made by Acid Crab. He reconfigured it so that it'll shut off his higher brain functions in about eight hours, so you have that much time to get your body back."

"Psh, I would've given it back… Alright, I'm sure I can do it. Just give me a second or two to recuperate," Liquid replied. The Sorrow gave him a curt nod of acknowledgment, and was about to fade out before Liquid interrupted him.

"Wait- could you send Big Boss a message?" Liquid asked.

"Of course," The Sorrow replied.

Liquid grinned wide and declared, "Tell him I'm back, and I'm going to kick his ass back to Purgatory."


End file.
